Producers made good progress with harvest this past week, thanks to several days of dry weather, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s weekly crop report.
About one-third (32 per cent) of the crop has been combined, ahead of the five-year (2011-2015) average of 28 per cent combined for this time of year, the report said Thursday.
Daphne Cruise, crop management specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture in Moose Jaw, noted that farmers almost doubled the 18 per cent of the crop combined from the previous week.
“If the weather allows, producers can get between four to five per cent of the crop in the bin per day,” Cruise said. “Those are long days, but most producers are able to get into the fields before lunch and stop just before dusk when the dew sets in and (combining) gets a little tough.”
Harvest is furthest advanced in the southeast, where producers have 48 per cent of the crop combined, followed by the southwest at 42 per cent. However, the rest of the grainbelt is well behind the southern regions, with harvest only 25 per cent complete in the west-central region, 24 per cent in the east-central region, 22 per cent in the northeast and 14 per cent in the northwest.
Of the total crop, 94 per cent of winter wheat, 85 per cent of field peas, 65 per cent of lentils, 26 per cent of durum, 23 per cent of spring wheat and 17 per cent of canola have been combined. Yields are estimated to be above the five- and 10-year averages for most crops, with the exception of lentils.
“When it comes yields, they’re above average for the majority of the crops. Lentils are down … because July was way too wet for them,” she said, adding that both canola and pea crops are showing “very good yields.”
Source : Leaderpost